As early as 1534, pamphlets had been produced in Italian, German and French which were translations of letters from Peru recording the early stages of the conquest – the departure of Francisco Pizarro from Panama, the progress of his march inland from Tumbes to Cajamarca, and the so-called ‘ransom’ of Atahualpa. But the French document in particular added further details which would for centuries constitute the most irresistible of attractions for many who wrote of the region, since it extended its coverage of fabulous mineral wealth by listing that recently transported to Seville by Hernando Pizarro.

The lack of comment in England on such news is the best indication we have of the scant extent to which those events were known there, representative of a lack of interest at that time not simply in Peru but in the opening up of the New World generally. We can, however, with some certainty claim that early sources of knowledge about Peru, in their original Spanish language, were the histories of the New World and of Peru in particular, collected and consulted in prominent libraries in England, both private and institutional. These would eventually include Cieza de León, López de Gómara, Zárate, Xerez, Las Casas, Peter Martyr, Enciso, Herrera, Acosta, Oviedo and the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. However, in comparison with other European countries, translations into English were few in number, rather slow to appear, based on previous translations, usually French, and selective in their coverage, for example when used by Purchas.

In consecutive years, 1552 and 1553, two of the best-known Spanish chronicles of discovery and conquest were published. The first, La historia de las Indias y conquista de México by Francisco López de Gómara, awaited translation into English for a mere quarter of a century, at a time when the voyages of Martin Frobisher to the Arctic shores of North America had infected London with gold fever. It included a comprehensive historical account of Spanish Peru, from Vasco Núñez de Balboa's first awareness of rumours about Peruvian gold and emeralds to the administration of Pedro de la Gasca (1547–50).